


They Fall Right Off

by CleverCatchphrase



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Gen, Lizard biology, Pool Party, non-graphic injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-01
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-11 08:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28468386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CleverCatchphrase/pseuds/CleverCatchphrase
Summary: Autotomy- n. The casting off of a part of the body (e.g. the tail of a lizard) by an animal under threat.
Comments: 3
Kudos: 18





	They Fall Right Off

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ononymous](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ononymous/gifts).



> Inspired partly by O'nonymous on our mutual fan fic discord. They asked for prompts, but warned they wouldn't write gore... which then inspired me instead. 
> 
> If you're particularly sensitive to descriptions of injury, fear not~ nothing is described in detail.

Summer was in full swing for the citizens who lived at the base of Mt. Ebott, and for monster and human children alike that meant two things; no school, and summer activities. Swimming, bike riding, playing sports in the street, or camping in the back yard, the three Dreemurr children and one Monster Kid were determined to do them all before their summer break ended.

Toriel only had one rule when it came to their fun- keep the doors shut. Front or back, it didn’t matter. It was hot enough outside as is, and AC is expensive, so the less the doors were open, the better. Still, the children couldn’t help but go in and out on occasion. Sometimes someone needed to take a bathroom break after their third game of tag, or get a band aid because they fell off their bike and scraped their knee, or find another jar to catch fireflies with, and despite Toriel’s best efforts, the traffic moving between “inside” and “outside” was equivalent to rush hour _every_ hour of the day.

And much like the cause of actual traffic, it was inevitable that one day there was an accident.

“Hey, Az! I’m gonna go get a refill on my lemonade!” MK said, shaking water from his scales as he headed towards the house. (The itinerary for the day had called for a backyard pool party, complete with squirt guns, sprinkler, and slip-n-slide.) “Don’t start the water fight without me!”

“We won’t!” Asriel assured, and turned away from his friend to fend of Frisk, who was currently smacking him with a pool noodle. Out of the corner of their eyes, both Frisk and Asriel saw MK pass Chara on his way in while Chara was on their way out with a bucket full of water balloons. 

Neither thought anything of it until they heard the sliding door slam shut, followed by a startled cry of pain and a scream of horror.

One heartbeat to register something was wrong, and another to find the source, Asriel and Frisk stopped their splashing, turned to follow Chara’s line of sight, and looked down to find a severed yellow tail flopping on the patio.

Frisk let out a small scream of their own, Asriel nearly fainted on the spot, and Chara stood frozen in panic, ushering frantic apologies to a very confused MK watching the scene through the other side of the window, sipping lemonade through a straw from a glass that had been left on standby specifically for him.

“Uh… what’s with the freak-out mode, guys?” the lizard monster asked, sliding the door open a fraction with his shoulder and poking his head out.

“I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!” Chara said on repeat. “I didn’t mean to shut the door on your tail! I didn’t know it would-! That it w-would-!”

Chara stared with fixated terror as the severed appendage’s twitches became weaker and weaker. A moment more, and the twitching stopped, and the tail disintegrated into dust. All four kids went very quiet- 

And then Chara broke down into tears.

“Woah, hey dude! It’s okay!” MK said, trying in vain to calm them. “No need for the waterworks. That’s what the sprinkler’s for! Ha ha!”

“But-! But MK, you just lost your tail!” Asriel said. “How are you not freaking out about this?”

“What? That?” MK said, tipping his head to the side. “Pssh, wouldn’t be the first time! It’s no big deal.”

“No big- wait, are you saying this has happened to you before?”

“Yeah! All the time!” MK said, hopping from foot to foot, getting used to the change in weight. “My mom thinks it’s part of the reason I fall down so much. I can’t ever seem to hang onto my tail long enough to learn to balance with it before it falls off again! Ha ha ha!”

“S… So it will grow back?” Chara sniffed, sounding hopeful.

“Of course! It’ll take a couple days, but when it does grow back, you’ll never be able to tell I lost it in the first place!”

“Does it hurt?” Frisk asked quietly.

“Nah,” MK shook his head. “It feels like stubbing your toe, but then the healing magic takes over and you don’t feel a thing. Look!”

MK curled the remainder of his tail to the front to show his friends, and, morbidly curious as all children are with the macabre, the other three gathered in close. It was a quarter shorter now, severed cleanly on a fracture plane. There was no gushing blood, or protruding bone, or torn muscle. Instead, the stump was starting to glow a very bright, very pale white-green; a monster’s natural healing magic akin to the platelets in a human body that patched up and repaired damaged tissue. 

Asriel stared, awe struck. He whispered, “That’s so…”

“Cool?” said Frisk.

“Gross?” said Chara.

“Weird,” he decided. “I didn’t know you could do that. Not even in all my resets when I-“

Asriel cut himself off abruptly. He didn’t need to remember all the times he was soulless and cruel. He didn’t need to remind the others of when he was more than just a little morbidly curious.

“Heh, that’s funny you never noticed,” MK nervously laughed. “’Cause all lizard monsters can drop their tails if they get injured, or stuck, or even if they get scared hard enough. I’ve even seen it happen to Alphys!” 

“So you’re… you’re sure you’ll be okay?” Chara asked. MK nodded resolutely.

“Yup! No harm, no foul!” He said, hopping back in the pool. “Now, do you guys want to get back to our water fight? ‘Cause I’m not thirsty anymore, and I spy a couple of water balloons that look eager to meet your face!”

His confidence rubbing off on them, the three Dreemurr kids were able to relax and smile again. 

“Ha ha, yeah! Let’s go back to playing!” Asriel agreed.

“How will we decide the teams?” Frisk asked. “Monsters vs Humans?”

“No, that’s not fair because humans are naturally stronger than monsters.” Asriel reminded. “The power levels would be unbalanced.”

“But monsters have magic and humans don’t,” Chara noted. “So I think it _is_ balanced.”

“This is a _water_ fight, not a magic fight!” MK pointed out. “So that doesn’t count! I say it should be Formally Dead Kids vs Kids Who Fall Down a Lot!”

“But what if _I_ wanted to be on Frisk’s team?” Asriel asked. 

“Ugh, we’re never going to get anywhere at this rate,” Frisk said. “How about we just flip a coin to narrow it down. Does random chance sound fair?”

Asriel and Chara shrugged and nodded. MK looked skeptical.

“That could work…” he said dubiously. “On one condition.”

“What?”

“I get to flip, and I call tails!”

As if psychically linked, the other three simultaneously splash him, shouting “too soon!” at his bad joke. But despite all the water they kick up, it’s only laughter that they’re drowning in.

**Author's Note:**

> Ha ha! I managed to squeeze out one last fic before the end of the year! (though I heavily suspect that AO3 will say this was published on the 1st). I hope I can continue this trend into 2021!


End file.
